If all the strawberries produced in California this year were laid berry to berry, they'd wrap around the world 15 times. That's enough strawberries to provide every U.S. household with 12 pint baskets.

Eight medium-sized strawberries contain 140% of the U.S. RDA for Vitamin C. One cup of fresh strawberries provides about 88 milligrams of ascorbic acid.

One cup of unsweetened strawberries has only 55 calories.

In addition, strawberries are good sources of folic acid, potassium and fiber.

Strawberries are also fat-free and low in calories.

If you're expecting a baby, you'll be very interested in some of the new discoveries about folic acid. In fact, 8 strawberries have 20% of the folic acid you need every day.

Fresh juice from sieved strawberry pulp has a cooling effect on feverish patients. For a cooling and purifying drink, either pour water on crushed berries or chop the berries roughly and whirl in a blender with a little water.

As part of the 5-a-day program suggested by the American Cancer Institute, strawberries can also play a part in helping you to reduce the risk of cancer or heart disease.

Strawberry juice combined with honey will reduce inflammation or sunburn. Rub the mixture thoroughly into the skin before rinsing off with warm water and lemon juice.

California Strawberries

From the end of September through the end of October, strawberries are planted and harvesting occurs from mid- December through mid-July in Ventura County, CA, which produces more than 27 percent of the state's strawberries. The peak harvesting season in California runs from April through June, when up to 10 million pint baskets of strawberries are shipped daily.

The largest producing state, California harvests 83% of the strawberries grown in the U.S. on approximately 24,500 acres. And with about 5,000 commercial acres, Florida is the second largest producing state. Ideal temperature for strawberry plants should not exceed higher than 78 degrees or lower than 55 degrees.

Every strawberry plant is hand-picked approximately every three days. This is the time in which it takes for strawberries to complete their cycle of turning from green to white to red. There is no storage of fresh strawberries. After picking, they are rushed to coolers where huge fans extract the field heat. Then they are delivered to supermarkets across the country via refrigerated trucks.